The Girl Who Escaped ISIS: This Is My Story

In the early summer of 2014, Farida Khalaf was a typical Yazidi teenager living with her parents and three brothers in her village in the mountains of Northern Iraq. In one horrific day, she lost everything: ISIS invaded her village, destroyed her family, and sold her into sexual slavery. The Girl Who Escaped ISIS is her incredible account of captivity and describes how she defied the odds and escaped a life of torture in order to share her story with the world.

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed.

Sold

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.

Slave

Mende Nazer tells the story of her kidnap, at age 12, from an idyllic life with her family in a village in Sudan, and being sold into slavery. Trafficked to Europe and the London home of a diplomat, Nazer escaped - only to find she had to fight for asylum.

The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars

Once wealthy landowners, Thong Van Pham's family was shattered by the tumultuous events of the twentieth century: the festering French occupation of Indochina, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Vietnam War. Told in dazzling chapters that alternate between events in the past and those closer to the present, The Eaves of Heaven brilliantly re-creates the trials of everyday life in Vietnam as endured by one man, from the fall of Hanoi and the collapse of French colonialism to the frenzied evacuation of Saigon.

The Kuřim Case: A Terrifying True Story of Child Abuse, Cults & Cannibalism

In May of 2007, in a small, quiet town in the South Moravia region of the Czech Republic, a technical glitch - a simple, accidental crossing of signals - revealed a terrible case of child abuse, and an entire nation watched transfixed with horror as the grisly extent of the perversion of the maternal instinct was revealed. Two small brothers named Jakub and Ondrej, nine and seven years old respectively, were revealed to have suffered confinement, mutilation, psychological brutality, and cannibalism at the hands of several people.

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook

What happens when a young child is traumatized? How does terror affect a child's mind---and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, witnesses to their own parents' murders, children raised in closets and cages, the Branch Davidian children, and victims of family violence. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, he tells their stories of trauma and transformation.

Infidel

This New York Times best-seller is the astonishing life story of award-winning humanitarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A deeply respected advocate for free speech and women's rights, Hirsi Ali also lives under armed protection because of her outspoken criticism of the Islamic faith in which she was raised.

The Sound of Gravel: A Memoir

Ruth Wariner was the 39th of her father's 42 children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turned a blind eye to the practices of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can ascend to heaven only by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible.

Not My Father's Son: A Memoir

With ribald humor, wit, and incredible insight, Alan seamlessly moves back and forth in time, integrating stories from his childhood in Scotland and his experiences today as the celebrated actor of film, television, and stage. At times suspenseful, at times deeply moving, but always incredibly brave and honest, Not My Father's Son is a powerful story of embracing the best aspects of the past and triumphantly pushing the darkness aside.

Violated: A shocking and harrowing survival story from the notorious Rotherham abuse scandal

The shocking first true account from one of the young girls who lived through and survived the Rotherham sex abuse scandal. In the summer of 2014, the Rotherham sex abuse scandal sent shockwaves through the nation. A report revealed that since the 1990s, up to 1,400 young girls in the town had been regularly abused by sex gangs, predominantly comprised of Pakistani men.

Joy Gissing says:"Horror Story and shocking to think this happened in modern day Britain."

Seven Years in Tibet

A landmark in travel writing, this is the incredible true story of Heinrich Harrer’s escape across the Himalayas to Tibet, set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Heinrich Harrer, already one of the greatest mountaineers of his time, was climbing in the Himalayas when war broke out in Europe. He was imprisoned by the British in India but succeeded in escaping and fled to Tibet.

A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea

Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child, Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the countrywide famine escalated. By the time she was 11 years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

This is how wars are fought now by children, hopped up on drugs, and wielding AK-47s. In the more than 50 violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But it is rare to find a first-person account from someone who endured this hell and survived. In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now 26 years old, tells a riveting story in his own words: how, at the age of 12, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence.

Salt of the Earth

Joe Gere said he died on the afternoon his 12-year-old daughter Brenda disappeared. It was left to Brenda's mother Elaine to sustain her stricken family, search for her missing child, and pressure the authorities for justice. From the first minutes of the investigation, suspicion fell on Michael Kay Green, a steroid-abusing "Mr. Universe" hopeful, but there was no proof of a crime, leaving police and prosecutors stymied. Tips and sightings poured in as lawmen and volunteers combed the Cascades forest.

Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur

Halima Bashir was born into the Zaghawa tribe, whose customs have remained unchanged for centuries, in the remote western deserts of Sudan in the region of South Darfur. Halima's father named his daughter after the traditional medicine woman of the village, and she grew up in a happy and close-knit childhood environment. Her father became a wealthy man by his tribe's standards, so he could afford to send Halima to school and university. Halima went on to study medicine, and at 24 she returned to her tribe and began practicing as their first ever qualified doctor.

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

Princess describes the life of Princess Sultana Al Sa'ud, a princess in the royal house of Saudi Arabia. Hidden behind her black veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband, and her country. Sultana tells of appalling oppressions, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations: 13-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age; young women killed by drowning, stoning, or isolation in the "women's room". Princess is a testimony to a woman of indomitable spirit and courage.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

An old Chinese proverb says "Women hold up half the sky." Then why do the women of Africa and Asia persistently suffer human rights abuses? Continuing their focus on humanitarian issues, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn take us to Africa and Asia, where many women live in profoundly dire circumstances.

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Hailed by Lena Dunham as an "essential (and hilarious) voice for women", Lindy West is ferociously witty and outspoken, tackling topics as varied as pop culture, social justice, and body image. Her empowering work has garnered a coast-to-coast audience that eagerly awaits Shrill, her highly anticipated literary debut.

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill 12 students and a teacher and wound 24 others before taking their own lives. For the last 16 years, Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong?

Mao's Last Dancer

This is the true story of how one moment in time, by the thinnest thread of a chance, changed the course of a small boy's life in ways that are beyond description. One day he would dance with some of the greatest ballet companies of the world. One day he would be a friend to a president and first lady, movie stars, and the most influential people in America. One day he would become a star: Mao's last dancer, and the darling of the West.

ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror

Initially dismissed by US President Barack Obama, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has shocked the world by conquering massive territories in both countries and promising to create a vast new Muslim caliphate that observes the strict dictates of Sharia law. In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain.

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

In search of adventure, 29-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children's Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal. Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children.

3,096 Days in Captivity: The True Story of My Abduction, Eight Years of Enslavement, and Escape

On March 2, 1998, 10-year-old Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped and found herself locked in a house that would be her home for the next eight years. She was starved, beaten, treated as a slave, and forced to work for her deranged captor. But she never forgot who she was, and she never gave up hope of returning to the world. This is her story.

Publisher's Summary

Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was 12 years old. For the next decade, she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex-trade industry of Southeast Asia.

Trapped in this dangerous and desperate world, she suffered the brutality and horrors of human trafficking - rape, torture, deprivation - until she managed to escape with the help of a French aid worker.

Emboldened by her newfound freedom, education, and security, Mam blossomed but remained haunted by the girls in the brothels she left behind.

Written in exquisite, spare, unflinching prose, The Road of Lost Innocence recounts the experiences of Mam's early life and tells the story of her awakening as an activist, and her harrowing and brave fight against the powerful and corrupt forces that steal the lives of these girls.

Mam has orchestrated raids on brothels and rescued sex workers, some as young as five and six; she has built shelters, started schools, and founded an organization that has so far saved more than 3,400 women and children in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. Her memoir, an international best seller, will leave you awestruck by the tenacity and courage of this modern-day heroine and will renew your faith in the power of an individual to bring about change.

This book left me so inspired that I had to find out if this sort of thing was happening here in the U.S./Canada like there in Cambodia. Sure enough it is, right here in our own backyard. I now work with a Non-profit organization, volunteering once a week to put an end to the child sex trade right here.

If you have only a little knowledge of the evils of human trafficking, this book is the perfect primer. It puts a name, a face, a soul to the countless faceless victims, and it gives us the strength to know that if this woman can overcome and achieve so much despite her humble and tragic beginnings, that we too can affect change by our actions and choices.

When I was much younger, maybe 16 or 17, I saw a news story on Dateline or 60 Minutes about a Doctor from the US that had traveled to Cambodia to take advantage of the poor children in Cambodia's sex trade industry. That segment moved me to do research on Cambodia's History, the growing human trafficking trade both here in the states and abroad, and modern slavery in general. I have been keeping informed on the issues and challenges ever since which is how I first learned of Somaly Man, and there is no stronger voice for the fight against these evils than that of Somaly Mam.

This book is very important. It is brutally honest and tough to hear. Every person should read this though because without this knowledge we are oblivious to these horrible situations. The more people who know, the less tolerant the world will become and the better it will be for all.

This story is so interesting, but also deeply disturbing! The story is great and it starts out when the writer is a child and all throughout her being grown up, and how she tries to help other girls like her. This book really opened my eyes and makes me want to get involved in efforts to stop the sex-trafficking. It does make me happy that I was born in America as opposed to Cambodia!

I love this book... probably one of the book I've cried the most listening... even though apparently some parts of the book are fictional. I enjoyed it from cover to cover. I visited Cambodia and this book gave me a higher sensibility of the country

As a radio program host for over 20 years, broadcasting worldwide on my show called 'Truth From the Source' I am always looking for great inspiring stories that I hear about and talk about on my show. This book warrants major media attention. the story is phenomenal. A story that should be heard all over the world because we are all dealing with sex trafficking in most countries around the world if not all countries. This is a powerful subject and a powerful book.

One of the most honest, straightforward books I have ever read/listened to. It may make you squeamish at points, and even horrified, but I feel it was worth hearing because of how important it is to know the truth. It's not a total downer either, there is much inspiration. Narrator was fantastic and made a great story even better.